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Lille (⫽ ˈ l iː l ⫽ LEEL, French: ⓘ; Dutch: Rijsel; Picard: Lile; West Flemish: Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders.Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord department, and the main city of the European Metropolis of Lille.
- Old Lille
- Palais Des Beaux-Arts
- La Vieille Bourse
- Grand Place
- Parc Zoologique
- Lam
- Lille Citadelle
- Stade Pierre-Mauroy
- Maison Natale Charles de Gaulle
- Town Hall and Belfry
Lille’s historic district is a delight, with restored bourgeois houses on cobblestone streets. You’ll pick up on the city’s Flemish influence when you see the baroque architecture dating to the 17th and 18th centuries. Place Louise de Bettignies and Rue de la Monnaie are the best places to start a stroll, and you’ll spend most of the walk looking u...
A simply enormous museum, Palais des BeauxArts is behind only the Louvre for size. It’s in a lovely Belle Époque summer palace from the end of the 19th century, and you may need as long as half a day to get the most out of the museum and its art from the 1400s up to the 1900s. There are works by Monet, Raphael, Gustave Courbet, Rubens, van Gogh, Do...
Most agree that Lille’s old stock exchange is the finest building in the city. It dates to the mid-17th century and consists of 24 Flemish renaissance houses, all around a central arcaded courtyard. If you’re wondering how the facades can be so ornate, the main architect, Julien Destrée, was a decorative furniture designer by trade, and was given f...
Lille’s expansive main square is the place where locals and tourists converge to meet up or see the sights. On all sides are wondrous old gabled buildings. Pause to look at the Théâtre du Nord, set in Lille’s former guardhouse from 1717. That classic Flemish style has also been adopted by more modern structures, like the art deco Voix du Nord build...
Located in the upmarket Esquermes quarter, Lille’s zoo is free to enter, placing it among the most-visited zoological attractions in all of France. The zoo is pretty compact, but has 450 animals from 70-odd species and takes part in international conservation programs for endangered species. The enclosures are all large and natural-looking too, so ...
Lille’s museum of modern art is a first-rate contemporary cultural attraction with more than 6,700 works from the 20th and 21st centuries. It really took off in 1999 when it received a donation from L’Aracine, an association of Art Brut collectors, and now contains the largest set of Art Brut works in France. Outsider artists like Augustin Lesage, ...
After conquering Lille in 1667 Louis XIV wasted little time reinforcing the city’s fortifications. The star-shaped citadel was built in just three years, and was designed by none other than Vauban, the famed military engineer who left his mark all across France in this time. The speed of the project is all the more amazing when you see the quantity...
The local football team, Lille OSC have been a mainstay of Ligue 1 for many years, and managed to win the league in 2011. Things have been up and down for them since then, but the club has a swish new stadium if you’re up for some live football action. Stade Pierre-Mauroy can seat 50,000,was built for EURO 2016 and hosted six matches during the tou...
On Rue Pincesse, in a leafy neighbourhood north of Old Lille, is the house where Charles de Gaulle was born on November 22 1890. It belonged to his maternal grandparents, and his family was well-off, although it had lost its land in the Revolution almost a century before. With the help of family keepsakes and contemporary memorabilia the house is n...
The art deco Hôtel de Ville went up in the 1920s and took inspiration from Lille’s famous gables. Flanders, to which Lille belonged for centuries, is a region noted for its belfries, and the town hall boasts the most recent and the highest of them all: It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site on its own, and rises to 104 metres. In a low-rise city like Li...
Oct 31, 2023 · Lille, located in the northern part of France, is a vibrant and dynamic city that offers a rich cultural experience to its visitors. Known for its distinctive Flemish architecture and charm, Lille is a city that seamlessly combines old-world charm with a modern and cosmopolitan vibe. The Culture of Lille. The culture of Lille is deeply rooted ...
Jun 19, 2017 · To remember history can be fun. If exams and stiff history lectures have beaten the joy of learning out of you, Lille is a great city to remember that history can be fun, because it has a relaxed attitude to its big-deal heritage. The city is an open-air museum, where you can mix it up with a visit to the Citadelle, a great military fortress ...
- Sylvia Edwards Davis
- Writer
Jun 14, 2019 · Just an hour north of Paris by high-speed train, and with fast, direct rail links to London and Brussels, Lille makes an accessible, eco-friendly city break. And there's plenty to fill a weekend: France's fourth-largest city has an exquisite old town filled with ornate French and Flemish architecture, unique cuisine that incorporates the area's renowned beer, sublime art museums, and cutting ...
The Lille Palais des Beaux Arts is one of the best and most complete provincial art galleries in France, and includes works by Raphael, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Goya, El Greco, David, Corot, Courbet, Delacroix, Rubens, Manet, Seurat and Picasso and more. Located in Villeneuve d'Ascq (Metro 1) the "LaM" or Lille Metropolitan area museum of modern ...
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Dec 6, 2013 · Lille opened the world’s first driverless metro transport system in 1983. Getting there Eurostar (08432 186186; eurostar.com ) has up to nine daily services to Lille from London St Pancras from ...
